Verona

Verona is a city of 265,000 inhabitants, located in the Veneto region in a loop of the Adige River near Lake Garda in northern Italy. It is 100 km west of Venice and is famous for its ancient Roman edifices, such as the arena. City of Romeo and Julia tries to collate car infrastructure and conservation of built heritage.

The local transport plans and strategies for sustainable transport for the city of Verona are defined in the General Plan for Urban Traffic and the Urban Parking Plan. The General Plan was approved in 1997 and is currently being reviewed. It aims to improve traffic conditions and road safety, to save energy, and to reduce air and noise pollution. The Urban Parking Plan was approved in 1999. The goal was to reduce congestion through traffic/access restrictions, a restructured parking system, and the introduction of parking zones.

A Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan was drafted in 2006 but has not yet been approved or adopted. The plan is now being updated in order to meet the city’s increasing transport demands, to increase the share of public transport through the newly established trolley line system, and to promote cycling networks.

The adoption of sustainable transport measures has not always been easy, mainly due to citizens’ unwillingness to using public transport in place of private cars. However, the adoption of Limited Traffic Zones (ZLTs) and of a zone-model parking system contributed to a 28 percent increase in the use of public transport between 2003 and 2008. A new Traffic Control Centre has also been established, and electronic devices have been installed to guarantee priority for public transport vehicles. In 2008, the electronic ticketing system “Mover” was adopted, and measures were implemented to regulate freight distribution in the city center. In addition, 63 of the city’s 180 buses have been converted to run on clean fuels, covering almost 50 percent of the city routes. The city is also implementing a bike-sharing scheme, which will run on the basis of individual electronic cards and personal identification numbers provided by the system operator.

Future plans for the city include activities related to the new trolley-based public transport system, which is expected to be fully operational from 2014.

The city of Verona cooperates with the Company for Public Transport of Verona (ATV), the Mobility and Transport Service (AMT), the Automobile Club of Italy (ACI) and other public and private companies.